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beat of drums and roared sounds like animal calls. Now and then they added more wood to the fire. Then the women brought millstones. A few men smothered the fire with broad leaves and removed the red-hot bones from it. They divided the bones among the women, who ground them on their millstones. The resulting powder was poured into urns of chicha. Afterward all the participants received gourd bowls in which the yellow chicha was poured.

‘I not drinking any of that! I said to myself, but Don Matías, knowing what I must be thinking, said to me, ‘Drink it, Karl, if you want to get out of here alive. Just be careful to keep your teeth clamped shut.’ I soon found out what he had meant. Unground bits of flesh still clung to the bones.

‘The men sat around smoking something. I don’t know what it was. It was wrapped in dry leaves and had a sharp scent. They invited me to have a smoke. Of course I couldn’t refuse. Don Matías warned me that the drug was very dangerous and that its influence could be permanent. He told me to smoke as he did, holding the smoke in my mouth without inhaling any of it.

‘The smoke burned my mouth, and my eyes started watering. I coughed loudly, but none of them laughed or showed any interest in me at all. They looked about gazing into space. They didn’t say a thing except when one of them cried out from time to time. Don Matías and I got out of